For Those I Love have shared a powerful and poignant film ‘Holy Trinity’ exploring the themes of  David Balfe’s debut album centred around the tracks ‘I Have A Love’, ‘The Myth / I Don’t’ and ‘You Live / No One Like You’ the 17-minute film once again sees David Balfe bring the scope of Irish hip hop to new heights.

The collaboration between Balfe and film-maker Hugh Mulhern tackles the power of empathy, love and community in times of loss, theses threads are brought together via the spirit of football with Tolka Park, home of Balfe’s beloved Shels never far from sight.

“For me, collaboration has always been based on trust.  So much of this project was spent sharing memories of my life over Zoom, and listening to Hugh share his. That’s the lifeblood, where the trust is built, and I’m glad it was. I feel like we helped each other see the world anew. It’s that trust that built the groundwork for the patience and comfort on set. That trust took away the fear of sharing this pain on film. That trust helped me feel cared for while still being a subject, not the easiest thing to do. That trust is what I’m most proud of here. As the myth goes, the public presence of this album can be traced back to Hugh. How beautiful it feels to make things full circle and cap this record off together.”

“My intention with this film is to provide the same space for grief. While the album is about Paul, I wanted to provide a wider context of loss in the film. On a personal level, it provided me with something massive. My uncle Kieran appears in this film talking about my Dad, Mick and my uncle John. John left us this year and I couldn’t go home with lockdown. I think grief never leaves you, it just changes shape and size. When I find it in a particularly pointed form, For Those I Love is something I’ve found a release in,” explains director Hugh Mulhern (Fontaines D.C., Inhaler) of the 17-minute film.

“We didn’t lose Mick or John to suicide but their deaths were a direct result of their battles with alcoholism. Our lead actor Tony Doyle drew on his own experience getting sober and losing friends to suicide. It’s hard not to see how they all correlate. It’s hard not to see the impact of a collective intergenerational trauma and for me not to acknowledge [the deaths of] Jack, John, Mick and Paul as symptoms of a deeply rooted problem in Irish society. I wanted this film to focus on those left behind, because that’s all who’s left. Although this piece is an exploration of pain I wanted there to be hope in its conclusion. I believe we can only make the world a better place than we left it by imagining it as so.”

Listen to For Those I Love’s phenomenal debut album below.